Rising garment imports from Bangladesh a concern: FICCI

Welcoming the Union government’s decision to increase basic customs duty to 20 per cent on 328 textile items, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has said that the issue of rising garment imports from Bangladesh remains an area of concern for the industry. India gives full exemption of basic customs duty for Bangladesh.

The Government of India has doubled import duty on 328 textile products to 20 per cent from the earlier 10 per cent under Section 159 of the Customs Act, 1962, in order to provide a boost to domestic manufacturing. This list of 328 items is in addition to the 50 textile products on which the government had doubled import duty last month.

The move is very much in the direction to encourage domestic manufacturing and will give a further relief to domestic textile and carpet manufacturers, said Shishir Jaipuria, chairman, FICCI Textile Committee.

“The measures taken by the government in last few months for the textiles sector have been very encouraging and given confidence to the domestic textile industry that has been reeling under the pressure of growing competition and rising cost,” said Jaipuria in a FICCI press release.

“This has also given us the hope that the government will address the issue of rising garment imports from Bangladesh, which remains an area of concern for the industry, due to full exemption of basic custom duty from Bangladesh,” he added.

Jaipuria stated that the garment and carpet industry was under immense pressure after implementation of GST. A substantial drop in import duty was observed after implementation of the GST, which has encouraged cheaper imports.